Originally posted by jhill76
This would be easy to drop a man in a hot zone and him get out quickly without trying to land a coptor.

Not really. Once the device is spotted being deployed from another aircraft, all the opposing military would have to do is calculate the estimated
speed over a 5-10 minute energy supply span and that will give them a minimum/maximum distance traveled perimeter to search.

I don't think we'll be seeing this as a military weapon anytime soon unless it turns in to an unmanned vehicle and is used to deploy nano-robotics
for surveillance or attack purposes.

i have only seen that suit in movies and the odd distance record jump. wild clips bud, makes regular skydiving look boring lol. watching them skim
over the snow was awesome and the one that shot along the tree covered slope was cool. you couldn't make a CG sim look any better.

I have to wonder how difficult it is to maintain attitude for a stable flight at those speeds. I would think it would take some serious practice to
get to know how to control your flight.

Seems that for military action this ushers in the possibility of miniature jet planes. Having watched Iron Man the other day, I was reminded of
Heinlein's "Starship Trooper" novel where the soldiers fight in these armor shells. It seems to me that this type of technology wouldn't be that
hard to create. find a way to magnify muscle power as efficiently as possible to reduce the fuel supply load, and the possibilities are considerable.

these are model jet engines, I suppose 12 kg thrust each (these are the largest manufactured that I know of)

the minimum thrust for sustained motor flight is about 1/3 the total weight of the airship, in this particular case it should be necessary much more
than that since the wings are so small but since he is dropped at about 200 kmts/h he has a good initial push so he can fly wit only about 1/2 of
thrust/weight ratio

1/2 thrust / weight is not enough to lift off from the ground so this may be an interesting but very very expensive way of dropping troops close to
enemy borders but not a doable way of troops extraction

Originally posted by verylowfrequency
Well he's a Captain for Swiss Air which means he's probably making over 200k a year, so I doubt anyone is going to persuade him change his
profession. Maybe he & his investors will sell it, but with a 5-10 minute fuel supply it's probably more a recreational toy. Only James Bond would
use such a device to escape some mountain top.

[edit on 15-5-2008 by verylowfrequency]

You're right there buddy, that's the reason why jet packs have never really broken into the mainstream, apart from the price the fuel supply is
always an achilles heel.
It is getting better though. In the 60s and 70s only billionaires could play with them. A bit cheaper now though.
There is a place in the states that makes and trains people in using JPs but the whole package - JP, training and fuel converter is about £100,000.
I think the flight time is only about 3 minutes or something.
There was a news article online but this was about 2 years ago.

Originally posted by jhill76
This would be easy to drop a man in a hot zone and him get out quickly without trying to land a coptor.

Not really. Once the device is spotted being deployed from another aircraft, all the opposing military would have to do is calculate the estimated
speed over a 5-10 minute energy supply span and that will give them a minimum/maximum distance traveled perimeter to search.

I don't think we'll be seeing this as a military weapon anytime soon unless it turns in to an unmanned vehicle and is used to deploy nano-robotics
for surveillance or attack purposes.

Against a first or second world enemy I agree. But against a 3rd world one you'd probably have success using a modded wing jet like the one seen on
the OPs post.

"Jet Man" Crosses English Channel Like a Human Rocket
"DOVER, England — He had nothing above him but four tanks of kerosene and nothing below him but the cold waters of the English Channel. But Yves
Rossy leapt from a plane and into the record books on Friday, crossing the channel on a homemade jet-propelled wing."

This is amazing. I wish I had one. I wonder if this guy and his jet pack are being watched as part of national security. I mean if he can fly across
the English channel; what other places could he or someone with this tech fly: White House, Area 51, etc?

This content community relies on user-generated content from our member contributors. The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides a collaborative venue for free expression.